Some one who exceeded your expectations

Mathman said:

Alissa Czisny. Pretty girl, nice spins. Who would have thought that she would win two U.S. championships and a Grand Prix Final.

Click to expand...

coppertop1 said:

I think Sarah Hughes was definitely in the shadow not only of Michelle Kwan but also Sasha Cohen who always garnered attention and who was second at nationals. However, what people who overlooked Sarah forgot was Sarah had more experience than Sasha. Sarah had been two Worlds thrice by then and was the current world bronze medallist, and the two-time Grand Prix Bronze Medallist. Sasha had never been to Worlds and was unproven in competition.

Click to expand...

...it's been curious how, since the U.S. Championships, the press has been attempting to rewrite history to exaggerate Cohen's achievements at that event. One recent Associated Press article claimed that Cohen "finished a close second," and another said that she "nearly beat Michelle Kwan." In fact, Kwan's victory against Cohen in Cleveland was not close at all. Cohen did not receive a single first-place vote from the judges in the free skating, and barely hung on to second place with a 5-4 decision over Hughes.

On top of that, other recent news articles have gushed over Cohen's "tiny pointed feet," her "dainty jumps," and her "balletic flexibility." But the size of one's feet has nothing to do with the way skating is judged. The rulebook emphasizes landing jumps cleanly on one foot but says nothing about making them appear "dainty," and displays of flexibility are not nearly as important in the judging as consistency on the difficult technical elements. Skating insiders might recognize the utter cluelessness about the sport displayed by journalists in making these comments, but what about the general public?

Click to expand...

pangtongfan said:

I never thought Sasha had a better shot in the 2002 Olympics than Sarah. Sasha had never been to a World event and did not have a lot of international cred yet. Her biggest achieve outside of the U.S was a grand prix bronze. She had also never done a clean LP yet. Her 4th place in SLC was actually better than I expected.

I always expected Hughes to win a medal in Salt Lake City. The gold was a surprise though. I had a feeling one of Slutskaya or Kwan would falter and Mrs. Consistent would sneak in for silver perhaps, but never thought both would falter enough for her to even win.

Click to expand...

RABID said:

When I first discovered this site I used to visit the archives as far back as I could go. It is an interesting treasure hunt to read peoples opinions of the current up and coming skaters THEN. For example Mao was the apparent stand-out bright shining light and Kim was JUST a good skater. It's crazy to say Kim exceeded expectations knowing who she is NOW but more than a few people here weren't expecting HER to be the dominant skater of HER era.

Click to expand...

Robeye said:

Evidently, some people were misinformed.

A couple of years ago, when Yuna was taking her extended break, there were some very loud and insistent voices on this forum brandishing all sorts of confident guarantees, some of the more amusing (in retrospect) including: that she would never skate at the elite level because of chronic "hernia", that she needed to upgrade her skating skills or somesuch laugh, that it was flat out impossible for Yuna to break 70 anymore in the SP due to rules changes, that the juggernaut that was Caro was gonna kick her butt six ways from Sunday, etc. etc.

It's amazing what a World Championship win that cratered the competitive field will do to silence detractors.

Given all of this, the fact that the whispers of doubt are starting again demonstrates just how short memories can be.

Click to expand...

Minze2001 said:

Good point. Anyone who doubts Yuna Kim ability to deliver now is...... But this comment can potentially make this thread another battle. Lets not make it another never ending uber battle

Click to expand...